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Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Notes on Good Characters in Salt in Wounds

Salt in Wounds is an evil place. While the binding of the Tarrasque is perhaps necessary, the city has been built upon its callous torture with no current legitimate efforts to minimize its suffering. More or less everyone in the city is party to this, and while that does not mean that every individual evil it does tend to engender a general disregard to inflicting pain and suffering. As such, a significant minority (and most of the leadership of the city) can be considered to be evil. With the addition of ghouls, good and nature aligned characters may have increased difficulty operating in Salt in Wounds.
Complicating matters further, due to a variety of ‘incidents’ in the past, the powers harbor a great deal of suspicion towards paladins, druids, and rangers (see The Circle of Release). Unless convinced of a compelling reason such an individual would be in the city and greatly assured they will not attempt to disrupt ‘business as usual' the House Militias and God-Butchers will actively harass these sorts of individuals.
Here are some suggestions for how such characters may manage to operate:

There are currently multiple paladins, druids, and more who operate in the city covertly; individuals who keep quiet both their mission and essential nature. Your character(s) can certainly be one of them.

For similar (or similarly motivated) characters operating in the city overtly, remember to focus on the larger mission/winning hearts & minds rather than overt force (which will most likely be cut extremely short).

If you character(s) have a deity or force that you worship; ask its advice about how to operate in the city.

Your character’s arc might be to transform from good to evil.

Lastly, remember that good characters in an evil situation do not necessarily have to change their character type in order to function but they are probably going to be called upon to be more creative and inventive to operate effectively. Surprise the GM by being effectively, unexpectedly good as opposed to being ‘lawful stupid.’